Community Is Healing
Guest Post – Jason Lacsamana, Director, Programs and Partnerships
Community is healing. Healing is community. These words reflect a deeper truth I’ve seen and felt throughout my work in personal spaces, and across the partnerships that drive change. When I sit with this phrase, it reminds me that healing doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in place, with people, and in community.
Much of our work through grantmaking, convenings, and supporting local efforts focuses on rebuilding and strengthening that very sense of community. However, community isn’t always easy to access. Some of us come from communities that have been disrupted, displaced, or erased. Others live in communities that exist but feel fractured. While some reach out, they are still trying to find their neighbors and connect.
At the heart of it all, our work asks a fundamental question: How do we nurture community, protect it, and make space for its healing power?
The Loss of Community in Modern Life
Recently, Trevor Noah talked about this, even though his intent was slightly different. He described how much of what we hire and purchase, such as childcare, meals, and educational assistance, used to be provided by our communities. His point was that because we’ve monetized what used to be rooted in relationships, we’ve lost our sense of community, and now we have to buy our way back into belonging.
This sentiment resonated with me, as I’ve felt the same way, especially when traveling. Community feels different in other parts of the world. There’s a collective sense of responsibility and interconnectedness that seems more complicated to find here. I know I’m not alone in these feelings, and I also believe we can reclaim them.
When We Say No to Community
We’ve also learned to say no to protect our time, resist hustle culture, and prevent burnout. Some of this may be a lingering effect of the pandemic, and some boundaries are necessary. But we also need to ask ourselves if we are saying no to the very things that connect us to others.
Do we retreat from our obligations so far that we’ve forgotten that commitments can be a form of love? Showing up when it’s complicated or inconvenient is sometimes how we build the very connections we’re longing for. I keep coming back to the notion that healing doesn’t happen without community. And community doesn’t happen without intention.
What Healing in Community Looks Like
To be intentional and dedicated to healing work, we need to be honest about what caused the harm. We need to name and address the structural and historical injustices, such as racism, colonization, and economic exclusion, that fractured our communities from the beginning.
That’s where truth-telling and reparative practices come in. Part of healing involves rebuilding relationships among neighbors, across generations, within communities, and between systems. It means creating spaces that are trauma-informed, rooted in dignity, and designed for connection that look like:
- Community land trusts reclaiming space and place
- Healing circles and creative expression
- Faith and cultural leaders co-creating rituals of grief and renewal
- Philanthropy investing not just in services, but in systems of care
- Partnerships centered on equity, lived experience, and co-creation
This isn’t just a feel-good idea. It’s a radical act of restoration, transforming the conditions that cause harm and replacing them with relationships, rituals, and resources that help us heal.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The truth is, we can’t heal alone. We heal when we’re on the land, when we gather around food, when we show up for each other, when we grieve together, celebrate together, and build together.
Healing is not something we do to people. It’s something we do with people in community.
That sacred, powerful, often messy work starts with us.
I encourage you to be part of my community by connecting with me on LinkedIn and by following our work at the St. Joseph Fund.
